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Team Muirhead gaining momentum

Great Britain's women's curling team chalked up their third round-robin victory in emphatic fashion, crushing Japan 12-3 at the Ice Cube Curling Center.

Starting with the hammer, GB went 2-0 up in the first end and 4-2 up in the third, before a five-point steal in the seventh prompted their opponents to concede the match.

With that effort in the seventh, Team Muirhead once again got their names in the record books, equalling the highest number of points stolen in a single end of an Olympic fixture since curling, in its current format, was introduced to the Games programme in 1998 - matching a feat that Canada's men are the only other team to have achieved.

Earlier this week, Muirhead's rink set a new Olympic record by notching a seven in the fourth against the United States (another 12-3 victory), the most points scored by either a men's or women's team in a single end.

However, vice-skip Anna Sloan, happy to see GB move into joint-third in the table - the top four progress to the semi-finals - played down the importance of records as they turn their attention to South Korea and Switzerland on Saturday.

She told Press Association Sport: ''It (a record) builds momentum for the coming games and it's a good building block but unfortunately you don't get any prizes for getting them.

''But it's always good and it shows we are performing well and going in the right direction towards the end of the round-robin.

''It was great to beat the Japanese. It was a solid team performance and we supported each other really well."

Young said: "It was an awesome race, I'm really happy. I really enjoyed myself and skied to the best of my ability in these conditions. I just focused on myself, my technique, relaxed into it and really enjoyed my skiing."

Musgrave was less happy with his showing. He said: "It wasn't amazing. I felt I opened off at the speed I normally would do and up until about halfway it was going alright.

"Usually I open off at that speed and I can increase for the second half whereas today I felt I started off at good speed but at halfway instead of being able to increase I just died.

"There is still next week and the team sprint and the 50km, so hopefully I will take it a little bit easier in the next few days."

Smith said of his race: "It was okay, I had a pretty good day."

In the men's skeleton at the Sanki Sliding Center, Kristan Bromley pronounced himself moderately happy with his first two runs which left him placed in joint eighth position, nearly seven tenths of a second off bronze.

Bromley said: ''I made a few mistakes in the first run but I was better in the second run and I pushed faster.

''I was more competitive but I just went too high on bend 11 and that cost me a couple of tenths. I'm pretty pleased with where I am - I've still got two runs to go and I feel like I can only improve.''

Parsons said: ''It was a great experience - I love competing and it's been great competing in this kind of atmosphere.

''As far as the runs go I was pretty happy with them down to about corner 11. I made a few mistakes in that section and hopefully I can pick up a bit of time there on Saturday.''

Russia's Alexander Tretiakov will take a huge 0.56 second advantage into Saturday's final runs after two blistering performances in front of his home fans. World Cup leader Martins Dukurs lies in second place with two Americans - John Daly and Matthew Antoine - in third and fourth places respectively.

The Belarusian, who claimed the Olympic title in the 10km pursuit on Tuesday, raced round the course in a time of 43 mins 19.6 secs to finish 1:15.7 ahead of Switzerland's Selina Gasparin. Nadezhda Skardino rounded off the podium positions, crossing the line 1:38.2 behind compatriot Domracheva.

Lightfoot said: "It didn't go to plan. It's my first Olympics so it's a learning curve for me but I'm a bit disappointed.

"This makes me more determined to come back in four years' time for sure."

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